


Disconnect

by WahlBuilder



Series: Fang and Claw [7]
Category: The Technomancer (Video Game)
Genre: (only mentioned), Alternate Universe - Vampire, Blood and Injury, Captivity, Drugs, Hurt No Comfort, Kidnapping, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Rage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 04:53:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18329009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/pseuds/WahlBuilder
Summary: Anton has gotten used to his mental connection with Viktor.One day, the connection goes silent.





	Disconnect

Anton feels like he’s gone deaf. He didn’t even think that he’s grown so accustomed to his connection with Vik. Sometimes it’s distractingly strong, sometimes it’s barely noticeable—but always there. Vik, Vik, Vik, his presence.

And now it’s not. Now Vik... is not.

He’s in the HQ in just a few moments, because he _doesn’t know where Vik is_. And they know. They should know, yes, they must, they _must_ , because he can’t, he can’t, he couldn’t feel the direction, right, only felt that Vik was somewhere, and then there was sharp pain and then Vik was _not there_.

And now, now Anton is blind and deaf and he can’t feel Vik, there is nothing, _nothing at all_ , no one on the other end of the line.

And Anton is going to kill. He’s going to kill and kill and kill and he won’t stop, because someone, _someone_ hurt Vitya, someone kil—

No. No. Vitya is not dead. He can’t be. He can’t be, because... he _can’t be._

They sit him down at the HQ and give him tea and try to find some clue in Viktor’s files...

And Anton closes his eyes and tries to actually think. To think.

There was pain. Sharp but tiny, like... A point. Something pointy. There must have been blood. He can try to find Vitya by scent. But he needs to know the general location, the city, the town, anything of that sort.

Viktor going away on solo missions, disappearing for long weeks, months sometimes is nothing unusual—but Anton’s panic, Anton’s panic, makes the hunters worried. So, by Henry’s sanction, they brief him on an unsolved case that Vik has, apparently, reopened.

It was a small, lesser clan, quiet leeches leading their quiet life. On good terms with the local mortals, even, and with a local were pack. But then they disappeared without a single trace, just overnight. It was one of that were packs, actually, who’s brought the matter to the hunter moving through the town. They were so worried that they asked the hunter to investigate—and the agent brought the matter to Viktor. The Colonel even visited that town, but, to no avail. Three years passed.

Anton growls (his hands shaking even when he clenches them into fists): “I will murder him. I will _murder_ him when I get to him. Going to where a whole vampire clan disappeared three years ago, what was he _thinking_?!”

Then he fixes Henry with a dark (pained) glare and asks, “ _Where?_ ”

Henry gives him the name of the town.

Anton chews on his lips. Trying to force himself to think. “If I don’t return in three days, call Misha. Raid that town.”

He travels without stopping, alternating between human, shade and bat forms.

It’s one of those mono-towns, attached to a plant, most of the townsfolk working there.

His first stop is that were pack. They live slightly away from the town proper, tending to the surrounding woods.

As he comes to their house, his heart stops for a few moments: he catches Vitya’s scent. Healthy, no trace of blood. It’s nearly faded; if he hadn’t lived, _breathed_ Vitya every moment of his days, he wouldn’t have caught it.

The weres are friendly, but it’s difficult for them to talk about that disappearance: the small clan were their friends, family even. They still grieve, with no closure, and have a feeble hope. But they scouted, those years ago, the whole town and forest, in this form and in the others. Not a trace. Not a clue.

Anton nods and offers sympathy. He _knows_.

He asks about Viktor. They remember him well, from three years ago (”We were so grateful that such a famous hunter offered his help, even though it didn’t bear fruit”), and from several days ago (”He said he came to resume the investigation. Truly, a legendary man.”)

Anton thanks them, leaves, goes into the town.

He catches Vitya’s scent here and there and talks to the people. Many of them seem to remember Viktor even from that investigation years ago. ( _By the gods, Vitya, you pretend it is all only about the mission—but really it’s about the people for you, isn’t it?_ )

In passing, he asks about the plant. And they say, oh, it’s the cutting-edge pharmaceuticals, they sometimes even conduct experiments...

_Pharmaceuticals_.

He is by the plant’s territory in the dark of the night. Circling it, circling, trying to think past anger and fear—and even through the red mist of rage he notices... strange things. Certain herbs planted around the territory, a certain placement of floodlights, a church right there even though there’s a perfectly functioning lovely little church in the town proper.

Cutting-edge research. Experimental drugs.

_Vitya_.

Anton has never encountered it—but some of his kiddies did, and Dandolo told him some stories (not many). Weres are hunted for parts more often—but vampires are hunted, too.

And Vitya, oh, Vitya knows how to annoy people so they started making mistakes. And he is famous enough that even these townspeople recognized him. The whole town remembers. The facility staff must have remembered him, too, because, of course, Vitya being brilliant and paranoid, he would have researched it and tried to get in.

And now he returned, and the town knew, and he reopened the case, and...

Well. The church, the herbs, the floodlights— _nothing_ can stop Anton from breaking into the facility. And they didn’t account for someone who’s used to urban environments, for a vampire who can see in infrared so he could spot hidden cameras, who can manipulate locks and assess thickness of walls, and slide with shadows.

He slips into the plant, or rather, the research part of it, with ease, and his rage gives him clarity of thought and enhances his senses and reflexes even more.

He raids the laboratories and offices first, finds all of their dirty little secrets, and contacts Henry, sending them files and requesting pick-up in a couple of hours.

And then goes to the holding cells. Only one of them is occupied (he knows now the fate of that small clan).

Vitya is drugged so heavily that any mortal would have been dead for a long time now—but, standing so close, Anton can feel him, even though the connection is silent—but in that silence, he feels Vitya’s presence, his life, though dulled. Shadows moving in the darkness.

He slips through cracks, the hair-thin space between the glass panels of Vitya’s cage ( _they hold him in cage as though he’s an animal_ ), and closes his arms around Vik. There is a heavy collar on Vik’s neck, and Anton tears it even though it burns his fingers (it releases acid), and sirens start blaring, and the cell is locked down... But they can’t lock down a shadow.

He slips away before the response team arrives. Hugging to the walls, slipping (with Vik bonded and pulled into his shadow form, too), sliding from the dancing shadows of the researchers themselves, in the cracks between tiles, to freedom, to freedom.

He stumbles into the grass in the forest, the darkness welcoming, Vik a terrible, beloved weight in his arms. He pulls Vik close, shaking, doesn’t even dare to call Vik’s name.

He stays like that gods know for how long, until a hand touches his shoulder--and he snarls and nearly tears that hand away, but Jeff jumps back. “Evac, Anton! Is he...”

“Don’t,” Anton growls. “Need to get him back to the HQ. _Now_.”

They’ve brought a helo (“You said evac, Mr Rogue”), and Anton holds Vik to his chest all throughout the flight, and nobody tries to touch either of them.

They land in a few hours on the roof of the HQ, and Anton carries Vik inside and asks, “Where are you holding cells?”

Jeff stumbles. He hasn’t stopped watching Viktor with wide (wet) eyes. “What?”

Anton tells himself that Jeff isn’t at fault here. “Holding cells. Where you hold leeches.”

“What? Why?”

“I need to bleed him out. I know you have cells for that. I know you equip them so that you can hold a vamp open and bleeding.”

Jeff looks away, very pale.

Henry appears. “This way, Mr Rogue.”

They set Vik up in one of those cells: thick chains around his wrists, holding him strung up over a small gullet in the slanted floor. At least Vik is already naked. His head lolling.

Anton cups his cheek even though Vik can’t hear him, can’t feel him. Brushes his lips over Vik’s chin. “I’m here. Всё будет хорошо, Витенька.”

Then he says (he’s so tired), “Leave.”

He can hear Jeff trying to hold back sobs.

“The lamps will burn you,” Henry notes. “Weaken you.”

“I know. Leave.”

They do.

He flips the switches on, and the cell is suffused in ultraviolet light, making Vik look like a corpse.

Anton winces as it starts leaving burns on his skin, and takes off his shirt. It will be ruined anyway.

Then he steps to Vitya again, and drags claws along the underside of Vitya’s right arm, digging deep, to the bone. The scent is all _wrong_ , tainted, and it makes Anton growl. But he continues and opens the other arm, then kneels to open the femoral artery, those on Vik’s feet, over his heart—as many as possible. His jugular.

The UV lights burn and don’t allow the wounds to close.

Anton brings a stool and sits down, watching Vitya. He’s not leaving him alone.


End file.
